Alexander von Hoffman

Profile

Alexander von Hoffman is a Senior Fellow at the
Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
He is the author of House by House, Block by Block: The Rebirth
of America’s Urban Neighborhoods (Oxford University Press,
2003); Fuel Lines for the Urban Revival Engine: Neighborhoods,
Community Development Corporations, and Financial
Intermediaries (Fannie Mae Foundation, 2001); and Local
Attachments: The Making of an American Urban Neighborhood, 1850 to
1920 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994) and editor of
Form, Modernism and History. Essays in Honor of Eduard F.
Sekler (Graduate School of Design/Harvard University Press,
1997).

Dr. von Hoffman has written
numerous scholarly articles on urban history as well as
general-interest essays on housing and urban development for
periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly, the New York
Times, and the Washington Post. His current
major research projects are a history of low-income housing policy
in the United States; the emergence of the issue of the
preservation of affordable housing; and the rise of regulatory
barriers to housing development in greater Boston. Before
coming to the Joint Center, von Hoffman was an associate professor
at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design where he continues to teach
as a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Urban Planning and
Design. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of History at
Harvard University.